Punters,
Trust the Mighty Tiges
to reach the half-way point in the season knowing that their
year, for all intents and purposes, is a shot bird - and then
come out and play their best game in a very long while. Go figure. Is there
is still some hope left to cling to? The Stats Guru had been
sneaking a look at the ladder as it stood before the match and
put Balmain's chances of making the finals after an unspectacular season into the realms of
"the mathematical". They have to pretty much win everything from
here on in to do that for a start off, and things are not helped
by the fact that over the next month the poor things play teams
who are currently 1st, 3rd, 2nd and 4th on the ladder. What's
the chances? Then they put in their number one performance so
far all season, thrashing the Saints for the second time this
year, while having an absolute ball doing it. Talk about ultra-reliable inconsistency.
It always warms the
cockles of a rusted-on diehard to see the boys remind them of
teams dubbed "The Entertainers" that played for Balmain in days
of yore. There's no finer sight in world sport than running
rugby league. We know that. There's never been any argument
about that. The controlled chaos of "broken play" can work a
crowd to fever pitch, and it's what brings them through the
turnstiles. So why not keep going that way for the rest of the
season and not worry about being toast from time to time? Is it
possible to just have fun?
Most honorable mention
should be made here of the 100kg six-foot Samoan refrigerator
known as David Nofoaluma, celebrating at home after playing his 150th game the week prior.
Noffa's had the misfortune to play his entire nine year career
at the Tigers in an era where they never really threatened the
Top 8. And he never did acquire the sobriquet of "The Try
Scoring Freak", as the Tiges already had one in the team in the
form of the now retired Chris Lawrence. But by crikey, can
Nofoaluma score tries on the wing - all 82 of them, and closing
in on the club record, to boot. While he's a master at 'screaming down the blindside', his best tries come when he
switches tack back in off the wing and they have everything
you'd ever want; the jink, the step, the weave, the constant
speed changes, before strolling across the try line leaving a
trail of defenders flailing in his wake to go in 'untouched'
under the black dot as the commentators screech
"Noff-ar-Looma!". From Day One you could see the bloke was the
goods, but who knew that over the years he'd go on to quietly
develop a football brain the size of a watermelon? Always good
to have a fleet-footed winger with a fair bit of heft and 'don't
argue' about him, but with his thinking cap on also? That's rare
out there. He's no freak of nature that's for sure, but he's a clever man. And
one of those footballers who just can't hide the fact that they
really enjoy what they do.
There was an unusual
and welcome sight on the telly broadcast pretty much straight
after the final siren, as the triumphant team was saluting the
fans in the stands, of the Balmain Great Robbie Farah, now
retired. The question arose "what's Robbie doing at the ground?"
- as it turns out 'The Best Leb in Game' is now a 'consultant
front-row forward coach' for Tiges when required. What was he
doing, then? Robbie was seen nation-wide stuffing his face with
a large hamburger. Joy. That's a good Balmain Boy. Job's right,
job's done.
WESTS TIGERS 34. Tries: Roberts (2), Nofoaluma, Laurie, Seyfarth, Talau.
Goals: Doueihi (5).
St GEORGE-ILLAWARRA DRAGONS 18. Tries: Williams, Hunt, Amone.
Goals: Norman (3).
At: Western Sydney Stadium, Parramatta.
Crowd: 9,982.
Tom "The Pearl" Papley,
after being tightly marked and unseen for three quarters of the
match, must have had a cocaine-laced pickle juice at the last
break because he played mad. He shook his tag and set the field
on fire in the final stanza, booting two of his three goals to
put the match beyond doubt against an opposition that had simply
run out of legs. Papley ran around and through them, and
celebrated each six-pointer with his trade-mark impression of
some kind of Whirling Dervish. The pretty boy came good just in the
nick of time.
Never mind that up to
that point the Swans were in clear and present danger of being
robbed blind by the umpires, who had an absolute shocker on a
stick. There are few things quite as galling as Bamfords being
so woefully inadequate. Some, like My Spy at The Ground, even
think that they are born to it and do it on purpose..."God, umpires
are made to just really annoy people". Bumbling officialdom in
all its tawdriness. Nothing worse. And don't get me started on
the opposition captain getting a free ride from the Bamfords all
day bloody long. What was that all about?
So, at the half way
point in the season, The Red & The White - at 7 & 4 - have
exceeded all expectations, when the most pessimistic of pundits at the start of the season had them in a battle for the
Wooden Spoon. Things have been put on the boil by some talented
rookies, a few 2nd and 3rd year players coming on, a genuine
ruckman (at last) in the much travelled journeyman, Tom Hickey,
who has again proved that the Sydney System works - pick up old,
clapped-out, seemingly washed-up players and turn them into
in-form position players, however briefly for pragmatic reasons,
and then there's some evergreen old timers who never have a bad game; Josh P
Kennedy (269 games) and Luke Parker (223 games) come to mind and
both caught the eye again with excellent matches. It won't last
forever, but that's damn near 500 games down 'The Spine'.
Supercoach Horse seems to have taken up a more or less permanent
perch on the bench without the curly phone, as 'assistant coach'
Dean Cox & Co. actually run the show from the gods.
Isaac Heeney "The
Cardiff Zucchini" has battled a bashed up body all year - and
all career for that matter - but put in a scorcher to win the Goodes-O'Loughlin
Medal for Best of Ground in the Marngrook match, and
is now the only player to have won the gong twice. Marngrook was
overtaken by the Indigenous Round, then the Sir Doug Nicholls
Round and something called Dreamtime at The G (which no doubt
the AFL has trademarked), when Markgrook was in fact a Goodesy
and Mickey O concept they came up with way back in 2002 for the
annual home game v The Bombers. There was even a Marngrook
Trophy for it. Plenty of top notch blackfella's have played for
both clubs. But the vagaries of scheduling have now seen
Essendon pushed to one side, and the troph goes to the winner of
the match between whoever the Swans happen to be playing in
Didgy Round. Why isn't there room for both?
Be that as it may,
cautious optimism has set in among diehard Sydney fans, but they
all know a season cruelled by injury can be just one game away
(two gun draft picks are both in Sick Bay after a few games
in the big boy's league), players can and do get The Yips, and
then there is the strange phenomenon known as The Wheels Falling
Off, which can happen at any time for no apparent reason. Even
so, the Stats Guru has again gone out on a limb after a look at
the rest of year and a quick whir of the abacus and put the
Swans in the Top 8 at the denouement, but there is still a
helluva lotta work to do to make the Top 4, which is the only
place you can realistically win the Premiership from. The Great
Buddy Franklin, bless his heart, said on interview that he's
still in the game only because he "wants to win the Premiership"
and Lord only knows time is running out because "I'm not getting
any younger, that's for sure".
SYDNEY: 5.3, 8.4, 11.6, 15.10 (100). Goals: Heeney 3, Franklin 3,
Papley 3, Hayward 2, Kennedy 2, Parker, Wicks.
CARLTON: 4.3, 8.5, 10.9, 11.12 (78). Goals: McKay 3, Cripps 3,
Betts 2, Silvagni, Williams, De Koning.
At Sydney Cricket Ground.
Crowd: 29,822.
Tom Papley of the Sydney Swans on cocaine-laced pickle juice. Photo: Nine Ent/SMH
